Coming Your Way

BeautifulBallad had the opportunity to recently see an advance screening of Walt Disney Pictures’ latest creation Million Dollar Arm. Directed by Craig Gillespie, the film is based on the true story of “sports agent JB Bernstein (Jon Hamm)…in a last ditch effort to save his livelihood he concocts a scheme to find baseball’s next great pitching ace.”

JB (Hamm) travels to India and teams with retired baseball scout Ray Poitevint (Alan Arkin) to find the “Million Dollar Arm”. He finds two young men Dinesh (played by Madhur Mittal) and Rinku (played by Suraj Sharma), who excel at throwing fastballs. JB and the young men head to America to train where they all learn more about life, baseball, and family.

The performances that truly stood out were Mittal, Sharma, and Pitobash, who plays Amit the boys’ translator.The trio managed to captivate the audience with their individual quirks and struggles as their characters found a place in a country that could not be more different than their own.

However, it is not the performances that stick with you when you leave the theater. Gillespie’s knowledge and research of the Indian culture and his ability to express that on the screen is truly the wow factor. Most of the film is spent in India with JB (Hamm) learning to work in a world where he is the fish out of water. When the roles are reversed and the boys come to America, their culture is still at the forefront of the film. From the music to the costumes, Million Dollar Arm did a fantastic job of joining the two cultures throughout the film.

Overall, Million Dollar Arm is a perfect matinee, summer movie. It’s fun, inspiring, and a great film for athletes, teams, and families to see.

Grade: B-

Source: Walt Disney Studios